Meanwhile in another part of Burns Town, in a small police station, several officers stepped out of the station having finished their shift for the day.
“Ugh, what was that...” One mumbled.
“I know… That crazy guy… He was adamant that he was a king” He said as a tall blonde man with an expensive jacket walked past him. A sliver of a thought entered his mind and when he looked again, the man was gone as was the memory of him.
The mysterious man stepped into the lobby of the police station.
“Hello? What you here for?” A man asked and he turned to him. He pulled out a blank card and an order surfaced in the man’s head. “This is a police ID for Inspector Smith. He’s investigating the crazy guy who thinks his a king. You will forget you ever saw him after he leaves.”
The man then turned to the CCTV camera, traced psions through the electric cables all the way back to a small security room. Within it was an old man sipping tea and lazily glancing at the CCTV footage as a strange power crept into his head and compelled him to destroy all evidence that this man was ever here.
The man casually walked upto the holding cell and found Kevin fast asleep on a bed. He’s the one… His psions are still unsettled, the remnants of a strong ‘notion’... Crude… Very crude… Whoever did this probably hasn’t had this power for very long…
He chuckled and thought, Let’s see who you’ve been in contact with… First… let’s start with who’ll have a motive to attack you, it could be a random experiment, but… The first thing all these newbies usually do is get even with their enemies...
Kevin trembled slightly as the psions softly swept through his mind, stealthily infiltrated the depths and excavated little bits and pieces of information.
Estranged wife… Acts like the centre of the universe and shoves it in people’s faces… Ugh, if he annoyed some random person, then it’ll be difficult to hone in on them… Deeper… Yes…. No… Ugh, too many people have a motive to get even with this guy, no wonder he ended up like this.
The tendrils retracted from his head back into the man’s hand. I could start with his wife, but… There are other leads… I’ll leave her for later… Where are the others… His phone started vibrating and he held it to his ear.
“What is it?” He asked.
“You know the individuals you asked me to look into?” The voice asked.
“Yes.” He said.
“One of them… Was murdered.” The voice said.
“What?! Who?! How?!” He shouted.
“Jack Parsley, the security guard. He’s brain dead. The psion’s in his head were completely shredded and drained.” The voice said. If he went after that man specifically, then he probably… Wanted to silence him, perhaps because he knew of his true identity… Wait…
“Did they see anyone suspicious appear? Did any police officers behave oddly?” He asked.
“Nothing of the sort,” the voice said. Whoever did that is much more sophisticated than this one, maybe he did this to fool me? No… Ugh… What’s going on… He drives him crazy and then kills him? Hm… It could be that… This man could have been a hated enemy of his, so he drove him insane to make him suffer before finishing him off… Does that make sense...? What’s going on…
“What about the others?” The man said.
“They’re fine for now.” The voice said and he sighed. I can at-least squeeze them for information, but I’m afraid the most important bit has been lost.
“Is there anything unusual about him at all…?” The man asked.
“Well, there is something. I noticed… Discrepancies...” The voice said.
“What sort...” The man asked.
“The story is that he died from a drug overdose, but when he first came in… There was no such drug overdose, it was just a story of psychosis.” The voice said. Cover… To explain the death… If it’s a drug overdose, then things will go by without a hitch, who can really question and overdose… Still, if they kill everyone but the most important ones, then if too many people start dropping likes flies, then certain… People might appear… Or even… even… a king…
But what if… I need to get out of here…
The man hurriedly turned, casting orders left and right, and stepping out the front door while projecting false traces of psions. As he stepped into his car, he noticed a teenage girl walk by, followed by an old man walking his dog, but not much else other than flickering lights.
He turned the key, started the car and shot down the road out of there. Good… I made it out of there, whoever did that is as skilled as me, and I should be able to handle them but… Who knows what sorts of friends or superiors they have…
Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!
And secrecy is everything, the ones who fall in the limelight usually die within a week... I can’t afford to do that, I’ve come too far for that… Way too far…
As he drove, a slither shot out and activated a concealed order within the guard. It said, “Stream everything that happens to lolcats.xyz” With him streaming it to my server, I should at-least see… Who this person is, if they appear… Who could it be… Could it even be a king…? No.. A king wouldn’t bother… Or would they… Could this be some sort of conspiracy among the kings… No… But…
-----
In a strange white world, Matt started at management articles for hours on end, some written by complete morons telling him nonsense, and some written by people with half a clue. The two meshed and intermingled. I think I’m getting the hang of this… But ugh, study sucks... Still, I need this to graduate from laying bricks, if that jerk Kevin can do this, then so can I…
His eyes bored into the ridiculously small font as he sucked in the scrawls further refined his knowledge, while the psions grew sharper and denser.
Sweat dropped down his head as a nearly endless amount of knowledge poured into his head. Ponzi schemes, hyping up the worthless as something amazing, and extracting the most work out of his workers.
Yes… Yes, that’s more like it… I can get people to give me money and call it an ‘investment for a business’... Perfect. Wonderful. Such a perfect way of getting money out of people for vague promises, Ahahahahaha…ha… Preferably without driving them insane, I need to work on that...
He sighed and flipped through the local news again, but the list was identical without any changes.
I guess no one’s going to be writing news articles at 2am… Still, I want to find out what the hell happened to those guys… Ugh… And… How long is this stupid virus going to rampage across the world, these guys are useless… Luckily, the world app is the ultimate firewall or I’d be screwed. World app… world… world virus…
He lifted the phone up and whispered, “What’s a world virus?”
He pressed the world app and opened up page detailing what the emissary said. No… No… What else can this thing do… What else… Don’t tell me it can’t do more...
He tapped over and over on random areas before noticing several grey icons. They were a question mark, a dollar sign, and a fist. They appeared for a moment before shimmering and vanishing. Was that just… Something appeared!
He began tapping more and more furiously, but nothing happened, until he switched back to the web app. That’s enough… Nothing’s going happen... But… Those icons… What… was... that… Grey icons… Disabled. Disabled features? Why? Is it because I don’t have enough mental power and knowledge?
He grinded his teeth and furiously tapped before stopping. Enough… Enough… Let’s get back to study, if I’m lucky, then maybe I’ll open up a new power tomorrow or hone this power. Not that I care if people go insane, but it would be inconvenient, it’s a miracle I didn’t send Patrick into a sea of ecstasy…
He slapped his face. That wouldn’t be good… Wouldn’t be good at all… It’s one thing if he thinks I’m competent and the best for the job, but if he starts thinking I’m some sort of god, then it could get bad, it’s good I didn’t push him too far.
He picked up the phone once more and started consuming information as the hours went by.
-----
The blonde man sat in a spacious suite in a hotel, he munched an apple with one hand while staring at a computer screen. Come on already… Are they not going to come after-all? Wai-
The surveillance footage shifted from the lobby to a porn movie, a female actress lay on a be- Nonononono, this isn’t what I want! Mole!
He activated hidden notions one after another to try to get the old man to keep the stream going, but nothing happened. Text began scrolling across the bottom saying, “Did you really think I’d be such a moron as to show myself on camera? I don’t have a death wish, you know. You are really a fool though, did you really think I wouldn’t be able to track you down… Paul?”
The man stood up shocked as he thought, They know exactly who I am?! How! I didn’t leave any traces, I wiped all of their memories. How did they find out? Did I.. No, it’s impossible, unless… But that’s ridiculous…
He gulped as he thought, It could be… It could… Hidden cameras. Damn it, how could I fall for it, they probably drove those people crazy to set a trap for me, ugh to think I fell for something like that… And they hid the entire time so they’d discover my identity, but I wouldn’t discover theirs… They… They… If they give this information to the wrong people… Or worse…
Wait… There’s another possibility, what if. It was someone on the scene, but they disguised themselves perfectly, but I went into their seas and. How could it be a disguise, even if you stop leakage, you can’t fake a sea. I don’t suppose they’ll tell me?
Yeah right, they’re not that dumb, every card they keep hidden is an advantage, every bit of information is a valuable treasure worth killing for… In that case… Why tell me they know about me? Are they that arrogant o- Not good.
Paul turned to the door, but backed off deciding to lower himself out the window, he clung to the pipe and slowly lowered himself down as the steel creaked and moaned. If they’re that confident, then that means that they’re coming after me right now, in fact they must already be here.
He sped across the grassy field, and caught sight of a man with a flashlight. He whispered an order, “You are a chihuahua. Go to the first random person you see in the lobby and give them a big lick on the face. They are your new owner.”
The man trembled as lost control of his body and stooped down onto all fours. I doubt this’ll distract them for long, but maybe it’ll buy me a couple of minutes. He clutched onto the fence and forced his body up, grunting in the process.
His bones cracked, as did his temper, as his body went up half-way before finally being thrust over the wooden menace. He shot across the grassy lawn, jumped in-front of a green car, and stared at the driver. An order flew into his cranium saying, “Give me that car. You will find this car in a gutter in-front of Burn University. You drove it in there yourself. You will go to collect it tomorrow. Ignore what it about to happen and forget me.”
The driver jumped out and Paul jumped in and fired up the ignition. The car shot off and the driver stood their confused before remembering that they left their car in a gutter, but it isn’t anything particularly important so they’ll collect it after they go to bed.
Urgh, not good. A notion like that has so many discrepancies, it’ll be easy for someone to read, but… It should buy me some time, I’ll change vehicle at the university, and then I’ll hire a vehicle under the name of ‘Mr. Smith’ before heading out of this city...